Dietary compositions have important impacts on the development
of the metabolic syndrome including NAFLD [1]. A diet rich in fat [8,9]
or fructose [10,11] is well known to cause lipid accumulation in the
liver (hepatic steatosis), obesity and insulin resistance. However,
there is little evidence to indicate that they are sufficient by
themselves to result in liver injury and hepatic inflammation, the
hallmarks that differentiate hepatic steatosis from NASH. Therefore, it
is important to investigate what dietary components may induce the
second “hit”.